BLATTER SAY'S HE WAS CLOSE TO DEATH

Blatter Says He Was Close
To Death Recently In
Hospital

Sepp Blatter, the suspended FIFA
President said he was `very close to
death’ when he was hospitalised earlier in
the month, over problems owing to
stress.
Blatter said in an interview on Monday in
Zurich that he was between `the angels
singing and the devil lighting the fire’.
He said in the interview in which extracts
were made available ahead of
Wednesday’s full broadcast, that it was
the angels who sang.
Blatter, 79, said “the pressure was
enormous’’ in his job lately as FIFA has
been battered by corruption allegations
and probes’’.
Blatter himself was suspended in early
October after the start of a Swiss
criminal probe against him on suspicion
of mismanagement and a “disloyal
payment’’ made to UEFA chief Michel
Platini, who is also suspended.
Both face bans from football as the
investigatory chamber of FIFA ethics
committee has filed its reports to the
adjudicatory chamber at which it has
called for sanctions.
A final ruling could come before the end
of the year.
Blatter plans to step down after 18 years
at an extraordinary FIFA congress on
Feb. 26, where Platini hopes to be
elected his successor – pending the
outcome of the FIFA proceedings.
Blatter reiterated in the interview that he
and Platini did nothing wrong and that
the verbal agreement on the 2 million
dollar payment, made in 2011 for work
done 1998-2002, did not violate FIFA
rules.
He also named Platini his former protege
before they fell out a few years ago as
“an honest man” and expressed his belief
that “he will be elected’’ FIFA president if
he is able to run for the job.